While I never exactly got into Dungeons & Dragons when I was younger, I did explore some of the lore and the scenarios created for it. I enjoyed a number of RPGs, but would often spend more time reading the rule books (for stuff like Star Wars and the brilliant Paranoia) and settling back into the single-player fun of the Fighting Fantasy books. But there was a time when I certainly knew a gelatinous cube from a less harmful creation, and I had a selection of impressively unusual dice.
I had heard good things about Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves since it first hit cinema screens a little while ago, and many people complimented it by saying that it somehow managed to evoke the atmosphere of a gaming session with friends. Many people were correct.
The plot is quite simple. Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez play bard Edgin and barbarian Holga, two people working together to escape their prison, assemble a group of people with various skillsets to help them, and defeat a villain who has been taking care of Edgin’s daughter for some time. The list of potential helpers includes Simon (Justice Smith), a sorcerer trying to get better with his powers, Doric (Sophia Lillis), a shape-shifting Druid, and Xenk Yendar (Regé-Jean Page), a Paladin who is mistrusted by Edgin.
Co-directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio, this is a snappy and confident slice of genre work that may have benefited from those involved not having already worked with fantasy adventure material. The script balances everything well between the witty dialogue, the serious approach to the lore and world-building, and a number of brilliant little extra gags and references that those familiar to the game will catch, and the direction is polished and inventive enough to help make the 130-minute-plus runtime fairly fly by.
It also helps that the casting is actually about as perfect as can be. Pine turns his charm all the way up to full power, and that’s something almost impossible to resist, Rodriguez is as believably tough as ever, but with a good and loyal core making her easy to warm to, even as she is scowling at most of the people around her, and there’s yet another wonderfully roguish turn from Hugh Grant, who is seeming to have more fun at this time in his career than he has at any other time. Smith gives us a character with an endearing lack of confidence, Page is at the other end of the spectrum, and Lillis is often the coolest member of the group until she transforms into whatever shape is required to cause maximum havoc. Chloe Coleman is fine in the role of Kira, Edgin’s daughter, and Daisy Head is enjoyably sombre as a powerful wizard with a plan to plunge the world into a new age of darkness and misery.
There are a couple of great set-pieces, including a hilarious sequence involving some magic used to enable Edgin to question some corpses (trust me, it’s much funnier than it sounds), the score/soundtrack is a delight, every element of the production design, wardrobe, and FX work looks as if it has been worked on with genuine care and attention to detail, and there’s a strong chance that this contains at least one of my favourite cameos in recent years (not to mention the other main cameo, a star name placed in a delightfully amusing scene that provides a little insight into what Holga looks for in a partner).
I am already keen to rewatch this, and I hope others feel the same way. It may have underperformed slightly at the box office, but, trust me, it’s a critical hit.
8/10
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